If a Man Die, Shall He Live Again?
by CLR31
Summary: Three teenage sisters are delayed by unusual encounters on their way to church one Sunday morning, and what they find out about themselves when they arrive is shocking.


_**The Twilight Zone: If a Man Die, Shall He Live Again?**_

_Opening narration: _

_Somewhere on a country back road in a certain country town in the Midwest, the Porter sisters inhabited the second house of Reno road. In their backyard, they owned a rather insignificant chicken farm. Their little farm wasn't anything special, and the sisters were neither rich nor well-known among anyone but their close neighbors, who had helped them get along after their parents had died some years back. The remains of the small Porter family consisted of three teenage sisters: Eleanor, Annie and Pearl. One Sunday morning on the 18th day of September, the three sisters departed from their house for a worship service that was to be held at a small country church that was relatively close to their house. But, the knowledge that the three sisters had lacked as they drove out of their yard, was the grim fact that the road they traveled on would not lead them to the small country church on Reno road, but to none other place than the twilight zone._

So, they traveled along the road in the pickup, cheerfully conversing about what the day might bring. And as they were driving along, looks of surprise grew on the faces of all three sisters when they saw a strange looking, shaggy man run across the road, waving his hands and screaming at them. They couldn't make out all of what he was trying to say, but they did catch the words "Go back! Go no further!" The three sisters actually found it quite amusing, not even paying any mind to what he was saying. "He must have escaped from a crazy home!" they all joked together, laughing about it as they did, and they saw the man disappear into the field, still waving his hands and screaming. So, passing that event off as nothing more than a crazy man on the run, they kept driving.

As they drove on for a couple of minutes, chattering and laughing together, Eleanor cautiously started to look from the rear view mirror to the back window, at a large black truck that was unmercifully increasing its speed toward them. In just seconds, the large black truck came up behind them, turning up so much dust and gravel that they could hardly see to what was happening. With a loud bang and a piercing scrape on the side of the truck that now sat in the ditch, they were all cruelly slammed against the dashboard. The three terrified sisters were completely silent for at least a minute. "Who would do a thing like that?" Eleanor asked, who was still trying to sort out what had just happened. "I don't know, let's just go on and try to make it to church alive," said Annie. "My poor truck has a dent on it now," said Eleanor. They slowly pulled out of the ditch and onto the road, and were soon on their way again, their minds still a little unclear.

It wasn't but a few minutes after they had been driving again when suddenly, the truck was harshly jolted up and down, and they heard the tire blow out with a loud _pop! "_Ohhh," Eleanor moaned in aggravation, "could this be _real_?" "Let's just get out and see the damage, I'm just sure we aren't going to make it to church today. If we do, it'll sure be a miracle," Annie said. So they all got out to inspect the vehicle, and what could've caused this unfortunate thing to happen, without them even seeing anything in the road before they had even reached whatever it was. So, they walked around the vehicle, and were shocked to see a large concrete block to right side of the road, right behind a sad looking, flat tire. "How in the world did I not see that?" Eleanor asked. "I guess it just blended right in with the gravel, I don't know," Annie said, as Eleanor climbed out of the truck. "Great, this is just _great!_ That tire's as flat as a pancake! And you know what? I don't have a spare tire!" Eleanor said, very agitated about the unfortunate event that had added to their unlikely, unsuccessful trip to church. "Well, maybe we can just kinda limp along to church, we've only a couple of miles left to go," Annie said. "Yeah, I'm sure we can make it at least that far," added Pearl. "Yeah, I guess that's true," Eleanor agreed, and they all climbed into the truck once again and drove down the road, feeling rather lopsided due to the flat tire.

As they drove away from the scene, Pearl noticed the same strange looking man that they had seen running across the road earlier. He was sitting in a bull-dozer that stood beside an old, abandoned barn in the middle of the field. When he saw that she had noticed him, he quickly hid behind the barn. But, what he could not hide was the large bull-dosing machine that he was sitting on right before he hid. "Eleanor, Annie! Look over there! I saw that strange man again! He was sitting in that bull dozer over there in the field!" Pearl exclaimed, trying to catch her breath. Eleanor stopped the truck. "You're crazy, Pearl," said Annie, "I don't see anything." "Well, just look over there at that bull-dozer and say that you don't believe!" Pearl defended herself. "Um, there's nothing there, Pearl," said Annie, "I think you're seeing things." "No, I'm not!" said Pearl, matter of factly, "It was there, I swear! Don't you believe me?" "Ok, well, I don't see anything, but I guess I believe you," Annie answered her. "Let's just get out of here," Eleanor said. They all agreed to do just that. They started driving along the road again , and in a couple of minutes, the church was in view, and they all sighed in relief that they had actually made it, alive and surprisingly only ten minutes late, which wasn't too awfully late considering the dilemmas they had encountered. As they pulled into the church parking lot, which was no more than a square area filled with dirt and loose gravel, they were once again annoyed at the fact that they had yet another problem: There wasn't a place to park. "My word!" Was all Eleanor said, as she was forced to back up and park somewhere behind the church, close to a small graveyard of former church members that had passed.

They all had an eerie feeling as they parked right beside the gray, weathered fence that stood leaning wearily around the graveyard. But just before they opened the doors to step out of the truck, of all the things that could've happened to make the delayed trip to the church even more exasperating, it started to rain. They didn't even say anything to each other. They were all too agitated to do so. Perhaps they were afraid that if they opened their mouths they would scream out in anger and frustration. So, as they sat there in the truck, watching the rain drops travel quickly down all four of the windows, you can just imagine that they all nearly jumped out of their seats when they saw the same truck that had ran them off the road earlier drive around them to the other side of the graveyard and park. They all sat there, bewildered, as the strange, shaggy man climbed out of his big, black truck, and ran around the graveyard towards them, screaming and shouting as he had done before. Just before he had reached their truck, the rain let up, the sun popped out again, and there were neither signs of the big, black, truck nor the strange man that had driven it to the graveyard and ran towards them just second before. "This is the strangest thing I have ever witnessed," Eleanor declared, "I… I am utterly terrified." "What do we do?" Annie asked. "I really don't know. Let's maybe just go inside and perhaps this will all clear up eventually, I don't know," Pearl answered, yet she didn't even feel that was possible. "Yeah, well I hope you're right," Eleanor said. So, they all agreed to just go inside and forget about what had happened. And they did. They all stepped in together through the little door of the country church.

As they walked through the hall to the sanctuary door, the only person that they saw in the standing by the door was old Mr. Graham, the greeter of the church. They all smiled weakly and reached out their hands to shake his. To their surprise, Mr. Graham did not return the greeting. He did not even look them in the eyes, and when they said hello, he did not reply. The three sisters were all shocked by this, but they couldn't have let it bother them too much, for they had already grown accustomed to strange happenings on their way to church that morning. As they walked through the sanctuary door, they suddenly felt strange, as if the bodies that they were walking in were just barely dragging them along. They definitely didn't feel like themselves at all. They numbly walked into the sanctuary.

They were indeed late. The choir was finishing up their last song, and the preacher starting to give the announcements: "Today, I am sure that we all share the same grief. We will all miss the Porter sisters. They were much too young to die." All three sisters looked at each other in bewilderment. "They must be mistaken," Eleanor said. They all stood there for a moment, and the preacher continued. "Services will be held next Wednesday for Eleanor, Annie and Pearl Porter." All three sisters let out a loud gasp of shock, but no one in the room turned, and no one heard their cries. The three sisters fled the church, crying. They ran straight to the truck, but before they got in, they all seemed to notice at the same time that there in the graveyard lay what they had been running from. There were three fresh graves, one marked Eleanor Porter, October 9th, 1991 - September 18th 2011, another marker read Annie Porter, August 26th 1993 – September 18th 2011, and the last one which read Pearl Porter, April 20th 1998 – September 18th 2011.

_Closing Narration:_

_So, the strange, shaggy man in the big, black truck that ran them off of the road and tried to warm them not to go any further, even placing a large, concrete block in the way of their truck, and once again, at the church graveyard, trying to warm them not to go where he went. But they didn't listen. And now, no matter how hard they try to escape the little country church, every road they turn on just leads them in circles, always taking them back to the little country church, also known as, The Twilight Zone._


End file.
